Having Honduran house guests in their West Lubbock home is more of a return to Cheryl and Craig Brummett’s roots than a new experience.

In the early 1970s, the Brummetts lived in a 10-by-55-foot trailer soon after Craig graduated from law school at Texas Tech. Cheryl taught at Lubbock High School.

They didn’t have any children of their own yet, but the couple opened their home to a young deaf girl for 2½ years during the week, so she could go to a special school in Lubbock.

Now, nearly 40 years later, no longer in the small trailer, the Brummetts have opened their expansive home — and their hearts — to shelter two little girls and their mothers, so the children could have a place to recover from open heart surgery.

“We just felt this is a time where we really need to do something,” Craig said.

The Brummetts heard about the need for a host family in September when their oldest son, Stuart, called.

A Christian charity organization providing transportation for poor children who need heart surgery in the U.S. needed a host family in Lubbock.

“We’ve kind of always felt like this house didn’t so much belong so much to us as to the Lord,” Cheryl said. “We wanted to use it, and we were pretty much sure that this was what it was all about.”

Normally, Samaritans Purse would select a host church in the area, and the church would identify candidates to provide a home for the children.

Since the host family would pay for all of the guest’s needs – food, toiletries, entertainment – the church is meant to take donations and help the host family with expenses.

Stuart, an architect, volunteered in Uganda several years ago where he met a woman who engineered water projects for poor Ugandans, Craig said.

Years later, the woman was working with Samaritans Purse and remembered Stuart’s parents lived in Lubbock, a city where a host family was needed, Craig said.

Craig said he and Cheryl knew nothing about the organization; all they knew is someone needed a place to stay for about six weeks.

And the couple’s church has stepped in to help.

Money donated from Indiana Avenue Baptist Church has helped pay for prescriptions for Cristhel Torres and Belen Herrera. The church also has donated phone cards to the Torres and Herrera families, so they could call back home to Honduras.

And, some of the money helped pay for Cristhel’s birthday party Saturday.

“People have just really been blessed, and that’s another reason we could do it — we have a lot of friends, and we have a strong church community,” Cheryl said.

Of the five Hondurans staying with them, only translator Noemi Quezada had been in the United States before.

Now the surgeries are over, the girls are in recovery and Cheryl and Craig are looking forward to taking them out to do things.

After teaching the youngsters to swing at a park, Senor Craig, as the girls call him, wants to take them to the Science Spectrum and Santa Land.

Although the families might not see each other again after the girls and their mothers return to Honduras in December, Cheryl said she won’t forget watching Araceli Herrera and Lilian Torres go through their daughters’ surgeries — the waiting and hoping and praying.

“You felt a lot of what they felt, not the same because you’re not the mother, but the ups and downs, the worries and the fears, and that tremendous relief when you get that report that it’s probably gonna be fine,” she said.

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My thanks and prayers go out to Mr./Mrs. Brummett for opening their home & HEARTS to this mothers and daughters as well as the young lady, Noemi. God has special places for ppl. like you and also i have been following this story and on this 2011 Holidays Season may we be thankful for everything. I am miles away from home, (Home is Lubbock, Tx) And i have so many health issues myself, but I am so very happy that this little girls that, all is well and to their mothers that only they know the feeling of patience and being strong. Many, many blessing to all involved and Doctors, nurses, the Brummetts and may god always be looking down on everyone. God bless you all ~~~ Doctors & Nurses are ANGELS!!! I know this is true!!!
Happy Holidays to all ~~~~~~~